Bill Camp Joins Cast as Dead Man in 'Cell Phone'

Playwrights Horizons has announced Bill Camp will join the cast of Dead Man's Cell Phone in the role of Gordon, the dead man himself! A new play by Pulitzer Prize finalist Sarah Ruhl, Dead Man's Cell Phone will be directed by two-time Obie Award winner Anne Bogart.

The production will begin previews on Friday, February 8, 2008 at Playwrights Horizons' Mainstage Theater (416 West 42nd Street).  Opening Night is set for Tuesday, March 4, 2008 at 7PM.

Bill Camp is currently starring in the title role of New York Theater Workshop's acclaimed production of The Misanthrope.  Prior to Dead Man's Cell Phone, which will be his Playwrights Horizons debut, he will again appear at NYTW in Becket Shorts with Mikhail Baryshnikov in December. Broadway credits include Coram Boy, Heartbreak House, Jackie: An American Life, The Seagull and Saint Joan.  Other Off-Broadway credits include Homebody/Kabul, The Devils and Lydie Breeze (NYTW); Kevin Kline's Hamlet, One Flea Spare and Troilus & Cressida (The Public); Twelfth Night and Titus Andronicus (Shakepeare in the Park); and Sore Throats, Macbeth and Measure for Measure (Theatre For A New Audience).  Film and TV includes The Dying Gaul, In & Out, Reversal of Fortune, "Law & Order," "Joan of Arcadia," "Great Gatsby" (A&E) and "Hamlet" (PBS).

In Dead Man's Cell Phone "Gordon is dead, but his cell phone lives on.  When Jean, an empathetic museum worker, answers his ringing phone beside her in a café, she is soon playing unwitting comforter and confessor to the man's grieving friends and family," describe press notes, "Before she knows it, Jean is ensnarled in the underbelly of the dead man's bizarre life.  A wildly imaginative new comedy, Dead Man's Cell Phone is the odyssey of a woman forced to confront her assumptions about morality, redemption and the need to connect in a technology-obsessed world."

The production will feature scenic and costume designs by G.W. Mercier, lighting design by Brian Scott and soundscape by Darron L. West.  Production Stage Manager will be Elizabeth Moreau.

The performance schedule for Dead Man's Cell Phone will be Tuesdays through Fridays at 8PM, Saturdays at 2:30PM & 8PM and Sundays at 2:30PM & 7:30 PM.  Subscriptions are now available to guarantee seats to Dead Man's Cell Phone. Single tickets will go on sale December 28. For subscription and ticket information to all Playwrights Horizons productions, call Ticket Central 212-279-4200, Noon to 8PM daily, or purchase online at the Playwrights Horizons website at www.playwrightshorizons.org

Photo of Bill Camp (2006) by Walter McBride / Retna Ltd.